Week 4 | 2024
I was lugging a crate of freshly picked beets to the market last Saturday when a customer holding a bag of salad mix in her hand and a parsnip pinned under her arm yanked me by the sleeve of my raincoat. At first, I thought she was going to reprimand me for standing in her way but instead she looked me in the eye and said, “Thank-you.”
“Thank-you for what,” I asked.
“We come once a week from the city to buy food from your market. Your farm feeds us and that’s what I’m thankful for.”
Now if this simple expression of gratitude seems unnoteworthy to you, I can tell you that it meant the world to me. It’s appreciation like this that gets us up in the morning and through the long days of seeding, planting, harvesting, baking and making, and marketing.
Exchanges like these are common occurrences around the market and it hasn’t puffed us up with pride, either. Instead, it’s humbling to hear how our customers have come to appreciate us for what we do: grow clean food on our own land directed by the principles of nature. But we’re not doing anything extraordinary. We’re just down to earth farmers who make crop plans, compost, prepare the soil, seed, plant, water, weed and pray and then harvest and bring the food to market. And for all this we’re acknowledged for doing some great thing.
But maybe sun-based, biodiverse farming is more groundbreaking than I’m giving myself credit for. Perhaps finding ways to shorten the food chain between producer and consumer and using the methods of permaculture is some great and revolutionary thing. Maybe it’s because we don’t see an alternative and don’t envision any other future for farming that makes these things appear so obvious and ordinary to us.
But if families growing food for the locals, on land in our own community is a truly remarkable thing, and if it’s done with such comparative ease and incredibly great reward, and if it can be done while regenerating land and cleaning our watersheds then clearly much work still lies ahead of us. We need to find ways to spread these simple ideas of hope and renewal for our fractured communities far and wide around the community, throughout the province and across this great nation so that everyone regardless of background and socioeconomic status has access to nutritious, local food year-round.
Farm Grown Celeriac
We plant our celeriac into soft, rich soil in early May. But they take eight weeks to reach transplantable size, so we seed them in early March in our heated germination house. We’ve been harvesting them as needed since November. It’s a slow crop but rewards you with a massive bulbous root that’s both gnarly and freakish.
Lots of gardeners struggle growing celeriac (celery root) because it’s slow to germinate and requires extra special attention once planted in the garden. It excels in soft, rich soils that are kept consistently moist through the growing season and especially when it starts to bulb up in August. And don’t forget to feed the plants several times with nitrogen-rich compost.
This plant should have greater prominence in our diet because of its nutritional value, cold tolerance, and winter storage capability. Like most root vegetables, it’s mineral-rich and contains antioxidants and phytonutrients. These components, while beneficial for us, allow the plant to survive in the garden even when temperatures reach as low is -8C. One way to winter preserve them is to cover them with woodchips and leave them in the garden until they’re needed in the kitchen.